WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
Choose language:
AUTHOR: M.J.
The situation in the Western Balkans today is significantly worse than ten years ago, which coincides with the complete suspension of the European Union's enlargement policy. This discourages reform efforts in all the countries of the Western Balkans and leaves a clear field for the influence of values-opposed policies of the EU - assessed former President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović.
In his speech during the last day of the Global Baku Forum on the panel "Regional perspectives: the EU and its neighbors", he pointed out that it is difficult to see the long-term future of the EU if the Western Balkans do not have a European future.
Today, the dilemma of whether the Western Balkans should be part of the European value system or whether it will remain at the mercy of retrograde nationalisms and the interests of conflicting geopolitical forces, which, historically speaking, regularly measure their forces, is on the agenda again. This is not an issue only for the Western Balkans. It is even more important for the EU - emphasized Đukanović.
The former president stated on the panel, whose moderator was the former president of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, that various continuous crises in Europe and on the global level showed serious deficits of the political identity of the EU, above all in its key policies: foreign and security.
The EU had to and must continue to confirm its unquestionable belonging to the Euro-Atlantic family by thoughtful, precise profiling of crucial European security and foreign policy interests. Unfortunately, it turns out that it will be increasingly difficult in the existing institutional scheme, which allows any family member to question the effective protection of the interests of the family as a whole - said Đukanović.
According to him, and as reported by the Cabinet of the former President of Montenegro, the European Union has been challenging the realization of one of its key goals and undoubted interests for almost two decades: the unification of Europe.
First, it began to reconsider, then to slow down, until the complete paralysis of its, according to the evaluations from the Union itself, one of the most successful policies - enlargement policy - said, among other things, Đukanović.
The President of the Council of the Munich Security Conference, Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, said that his personal feeling is that it is a shame and a shame that the Balkan countries have been waiting since the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003 for EU membership.
That's why, according to him, the whole process should be reconsidered, it should be understood as an emergency and the Copenhagen criteria should be reconsidered, because the idea of Europe we are striving for is a Europe that integrates.
The panel included former presidents of Croatia Ivo Josipović, Albania Ilir Meta and Bulgaria Petar Stojanov, former member of the BiH Presidency Mladen Ivanić, former Prime Minister of Malta Jozef Muskat, European Commissioner for Development from 2004 to 2010 Andris Piebalgs and Secretary General of the Black Sea Economic Organization of cooperation Lazar Komanescu, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania.
After the panel, Đukanović visited the editorial office of the monthly journal "My Azerbaijan" at the invitation of editor-in-chief Emil Nasirli, who presented him with the "Friend of Azerbaijan" gold medal for his outstanding contribution to the development and strengthening of friendly relations between the two countries.
